Thursday 19 April 2012

Cramming

Some people have organized notes from day 1 of the semester to day whatever we're at now.
Some people study for exams for days, even weeks before the day before the exam and even refuse invitations to go out on weekends so they can study.

But most of us are crammers.
Cramming rarely works, but we all continue to do it. Here are my top 5 signs that I'm a crammer.


1. Where the hell are all my notes?
I swear I took notes every day for the past 4 months but I mysteriously only have about 5 or 6 pages of handwritten notes for each subject... interesting...


2. My bed is no longer used to rest
It has become a place where happiness goes to die. Covered in papers, highlighters, and electronics used mainly for procrastination purposes.




3. Sweatpants aren't practical
When you spend a week straight locked up in a hot miserable room with a computer on your legs or right beside you discover that sweatpants get too hot to be worn in these conditions. It's my ugly 80's style gym shorts all the way.

4. Health? what's health?
I brought my gym clothes to school every day for a week and never went to the gym. Was I fooling all of you? My typical diet has become Redbull (when was it not), chocolate, and I even went to McDonald's the other day. Shame on me. No time or effort to care.


5. I hope people remember what I looked like before cram week.
How did I not notice until 10 at night that I've been walking around all day with my hair like this? My nail polish is so chipped some fingers don't have any. No I'm not going for the uni-brow look, it's just kind of happening.



If my IPP doesn't get approved tomorrow I might kill myself.
And wine is my best friend. That's all. #stircrazy

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Rejection

My IPP got rejected for the second time yesterday morning, and anyone who has been in earshot of me over the past two days will have heard extensive bitching and moaning about it.

Needless to say I haven't been handling it very well.

For all the non-CreComms out there an IPP is your Independent Professional Project.
Its a project of our choosing that we work on from now until about February of next year that has to be completed in order to graduate CreComm. Think of it as the equivalent of your thesis I guess.

Well before starting this project we write detailed proposals about them, and present them to a panel of our teachers to get approved or rejected.

As I was rejected for the second time I have gone through the following stages over the past 24 hours:

1. Throw yourself a pity party

I hosted mine in an edit suite on the second floor of the college.
There was tears, chocolate, and depressing music.
It was a wonderful 3 hours of feeling sorry for myself


2. Consider alternate career paths.

....cry a little more.


3. Disregard showering

 In this faze the general public can deal with the fact that I did not shower this morning. That's what bandanas are for. I was too sad to care about getting out of bed more than a minute before I had to leave for school.



4. Hug cute things



5. Reenergize

I unnecessarily took a 2 hour power nap in the middle of the day today, and followed it by pounding back a jumbo Redbull.

Time to get psyched and get back on the IPP horse.

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Dionysus


Last week, my CreComm class filed into the Rachel Browne Theatre to indulge in a night of Winnipeg culture. We all saw the play Dionysus in Stony Mountain, directed by Bill Kerr starring Sarah Constible and Ross McMillan.

The play follows a psychiatrist’s descent into perceived madness using her patient at Stony Mountain as her muse.

Sounds like a pretty interesting concept, right?

Well maybe some people enjoyed this play, but I was definitely not the audience for it.

The first act was packed with philosophy driven convoluted sentences, and Friedrich Nietzsche (who’s that??) quotes that left myself and many other audience member with a bad taste in their mouths. Who talks like that? No one.

I don’t know any intellectual people that speak as if they’re reading from a textbook.

The first act was a snooze fest. I really didn’t grasp onto any emotional moments and nothing stuck out for me as particularly interesting. I didn’t connect with either character, and didn’t care about what may happen to them in the future.

My main focus during the first act was that my legs were too long for the tiny seats, followed by “who wears ultra skinny jeans to a 2 hour long play? Come on Lindsay.”

My leg comfort should not be my main focus during a play.

The second act was an improvement on the first. I could focus on the show for the entire duration of the performance, and the actors seemed to be more passionate about the material.

They measured already cut-to-size isolation, changed from grey sweater to grey sweater, and drank scotch. Thrilling material. But seriously, the second act wasn’t so bad.

I used to minor in theatre and I really do enjoy going to see shows, but this was not a fun evening. By the time I got home I was bitter about being out past my bedtime, and disappointed in my sore legs. I definitely recommend getting out to see some plays in Winnipeg, but please, for your sake, avoid Dionysus in Stony Mountain.